Moving to alternative proteins is an essential part of achieving Net Zero in the UK. We are already making huge progress - Over the last decade, meat consumption in the UK has fallen 17% and alternative protein consumption has doubled. This is great news for both the environment and people's health. However, it is not a simple task to replace animal protein across manufactured food. First, proteins need certain properties: they must be soluble and able to gel, emulsify or foam, to act as effective food ingredients. They also need to be cost-effective, nutritious and have low environmental impact. This is not currently the case. The vast majority of alternative protein is imported and, in the case of soya, is produced at huge expense to the environment. At Arborea, we believe UK food manufacturers should have access to nutritious alternative proteins, locally produced, with the properties they need to deliver the products consumers want. Spirulina is a highly nutritious microalgae, high in soluble protein, which offers a solution to this challenge. However, current processing techniques result in an extract with strong colour and flavour, requiring further expensive and only partially effective postprocessing. As such, despite its many advantages, microalgae have achieved limited success as a mass-market food ingredient. In the PROSPER project, Arborea, a developer of cutting-edge bioprocesses, is collaborating with world-leading experts in food production, Campden BRI, to tackle this challenge. We have identified a novel pre-processing technique with the potential to eliminate flavour and colour issues. However, although this technique is well-established in other fields, limited research has been done into its use with microalgae. With support from Innovate UK/UKRI, we can capitalise on the promise of this rapid, low-cost technology for producing high purity soluble proteins. We will use this project to optimise the growth, pre-treatment and extraction processes to maximise yield and minimise cost. Arborea has developed the world's first 'breathing' bioreactor -- the BioSolar Leaf -- which significantly reduces production costs of microalgae. Project success will add the remaining piece of the jigsaw to complete an end-to-end protein manufacturing solution suitable for use in the UK, delivering highly nutritious, low-cost and consumer acceptable soluble proteins with almost zero environmental impact. By producing directly and licensing the technology, PROSPER will create a multi-million pound UK value chain, displace environmentally unsound protein imports and provide UK consumers with a high quality, nutritious and affordable home-grown alternative protein.

By 2050, the world will need to produce twice as much protein as it does today to feed its population. Meeting this demand would traditionally require 25,000 km2 grazing land for cattle, for example, or 2,000km2 of soya plantations, neither of which is sustainable. At Arborea, we believe the answer lies in photosynthetic microalgae. These microscopic organisms can be cultivated in bioreactors, removing the need for precious agricultural land, and can produce up to 100x more protein per hectare than soya. However, production costs and customer perceptions have prevented microalgae becoming a commodity protein for human consumption. Chlorophyll, fats and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) create unpleasant 'off-flavours', limiting the applications in which microalgae can be used to niche supplements and animal feed. The PROFILE project will develop a novel approach to microalgae protein production towards commercial viability. Using University of Greenwich's state-of-the-art facilities, we will identify key flavour and colour compounds, before using next-generation recyclable solvents developed by Imperial College London to remove the unwanted compounds through a low-cost, environmentally friendly process. This is made possible through the use of waste carbon dioxide during production and non-toxic, recyclable solvents in a low-temperature process for protein extraction. The resultant protein isolate will have low off-flavours and low-colour, making it an attractive food ingredient. By licensing the technology to food manufacturers, we will create a UK value chain for microalgae protein worth over £135m. In doing so, Arborea and its licensees will produce 26,500 tonnes of carbon-neutral, UK-produced protein by 2030, eliminating 1 million tonnes of CO2e emissions compared to beef production and displacing imports of environmentally destructive soya.

Arborea is a biochemical technology company that makes pioneering algae cultivation technologies to produce high-value bio products and to fix carbon dioxide. Arborea’s mission is to finally unlock microalgae’s full potential to combat global-warming and resource-scarcity on a massive scale thanks to its ground-breaking Carbon-Bio-Converter technology that enables industrial scale algae biomass production with especially lower operational and capital costs, unlimited scalability and higher yield compared to current algae cultivation technologies. This feasibility study is intended to give Arborea the resources to prepare for (i) a private investment and (ii) a commercial pilot deal within the US. Main project activities include investment proposal developments, data analysis, due diligence.

IP strategy support for present and future product stream.